If I'm not mistaken, the upcoming Alviso chipset for the Pentium M is supposed to have dual-channel ddr2 support (and front-side bus support for the upcoming 533mhz Dothans).

I'd expect dual channel to give a big performance boost, so I'm eagerly awaiting the new chipset, supposed to be released Q1 2005 (was originally supposed to be release with the introduction of Dothan).

That's one reason why I think other mobo companies like Asus haven't come out with their own P-M MicroATX boards yet, they're waiting for the new chipset.

I think you're right. Now where did I read about that AOpen barebone notebook with Alviso chipset.. yeah here it is. My apologies if someone have posted this somewhere else, I don't want to cause a riot!

"The above diagram shows support for Dual Channel DDR2-533 which can provide bandwidth upto 8.5GB/s. We also know that the current DDR333/400 standard is supported by the chipset with a maximum limit of 4GB RAM. ECC is not supported"

so it looks as if its an optional thing. we may see different board variations.

I'd like to know what your playing around with the AOpen and DFI boards has produced in the way of observations and sugestions for the rest of us. Can you give us a hint?

This thread is 30 days old at this point and I've seen no "movement" and no posting of "I like this and don't like that". Are the SPCR staff (other than yerself) involved in testing the mobos and CPUs or is this your project? I don't mean to be to agressive but...

I'm curious and somewhat impatient. And thrumbing my toes...

Thanks for any light you can shed on the Pentium-M desktop motherboard situation.

I bought this board because I thought that stock S478 coolers would fit and with passive cooling in mind.

I received the board from a webshop 3 weeks ago with a Dothan 1.8Ghz. I installed a Zalman CNPS6500B-ALCU heatsink and never tried the one from Aopen. When I connected the power supply I heard a weird high-frequency hiss from the power-supply (Chieftec 250W). Didn't think any more about it and booted a bare-bone system with only ram and processor installed. Then I got beeping noises telling me "memory failure" (judging from the sparse manual) but the system booted and I could enter the BIOS.

Anyway, I tried the Corsair value 2x 512MB DDR3200 ram in another computer and it worked perfectly. I tried connecting another PSU (Chieftec 340W), and still the same hiss before turning on the system. So I thought, oh well, the mobo is bad. Looking underneath the heatsink and judging from the thermal paste it "looked" like the core had contact with it, but I'm not so sure anymore. Time passed, the webshop tested the motherboard and told me that there's nothing wrong with it. They tried a stock Intel-cooler first, and that one didn't work. Worked fine with the supplied one, they said :/

So now I'm really confused. I suspect the heatsink might be to blame. The webshop offered me to test the whole setup with both the Zalman heatsink and ram so I've mailed it to them for further investigation.

I double checked the Aopen manual, and looking at the pictures it seems like the heatsink extends a bit further down compared to a S478 device. I read the gamepc review, and they also tried a Zalman cooler and it seemed to work well, although the temperature was bit high at 66C. No mention of any copper shims though. Another review from Hardwarezone states than not every S478 cooler might be used.

Good news though, my Dothan 1.6 seems stable at 119x16 = 1904MHz, undervolted to 1.26v(default 1.34). The CPU is cooled by a Thermalright XP-120 heatsink without fan. I'm running the whole system completely fan-less, it's a minitower with the top taken of, so that the heat can rise. CPU temp with Prime is about 66 degree C (although aopen utility reports 56 the bios reports 66 after a fast reboot).

I really don't know what to do, after the expenses with sending parts back to the webshop and paying them for testing I might end up with returning the board back. Haven't given up passive pentium-m cooling yet though.

Could anyone using a S478 cooler kindly double-check if it makes proper contact with the cpu and not only the thermal paste? Maybe a copper shim is needed? No idea where to get such a shim though and I'm worried about high temperature. Right now it seems that some S478 coolers might do the job. I haven't seen any heatsinks made specially for passive cooling of a pentium-m that will fit.

Sorry for this lengthy post, wasn't sure if it was proper to start a new thread though. Sigh, should have done more investigantion before buying this board.

I don't know about the Zalman 6500, but I think the 7000 can be fitted, and if you need some extra pressure to compensate the height you just put a 1.5-2 mm piece of metal between the clip and the top of the heatsink (under the fan). I've heard that the XP-120 got very strong springs so I guess it's enough for the PM as well.

Meanwhile, why don't you use the stock heatsink? Is it that bad?I guess it is if you're overclocking, are you?

I don't know about the Zalman 6500, but I think the 7000 can be fitted, and if you need some extra pressure to compensate the height you just put a 1.5-2 mm piece of metal between the clip and the top of the heatsink (under the fan). I've heard that the XP-120 got very strong springs so I guess it's enough for the PM as well.

Meanwhile, why don't you use the stock heatsink? Is it that bad?I guess it is if you're overclocking, are you?

Nope, I won't be overclocking I just want a silent system where I can have full control of all the fans. I decided to buy this board because I really want passive CPU cooling and still have good performance/temperature ratio. I've heard that the stock cooler is quite ok, but it still has a fan that might become more noisy over time.

Yeah, it looks like Zalman 7000/XP120 might fit. I just hope someone with first hand experience might add some input. Don't really want to pay for another expensive heatsink not knowing if it will work properly.

Update: Mats, actually your advice on those coolers having very strong springs might solve the problem I double checked the reviews here at SPCR, looked at a picture earlier in the thread, compared review pictures and it looks like both the XP90/XP120/Zalman 7000 might extend far enough down to cool the PM properly. I assume it might work because the bottom of the heatsinks has a smaller area so it doesn't "rest" on the retention frame. Thanks for putting me on the right track, I'm now considering a XP120.

My dealer hasn't sent the board back yet. The have a small backlog so it will take at least one week. I have already promised to leave feedback about the stock heatsink, so of course I'll write some lines.

I received the board from a webshop 3 weeks ago with a Dothan 1.8Ghz. I installed a Zalman CNPS6500B-ALCU heatsink and never tried the one from Aopen. When I connected the power supply I heard a weird high-frequency hiss from the power-supply (Chieftec 250W). Didn't think any more about it and booted a bare-bone system with only ram and processor installed. Then I got beeping noises telling me "memory failure" (judging from the sparse manual) but the system booted and I could enter the BIOS.

I also got some strange beeps on boot, but it turned out to be warning message becase there was no cpu-fan attached. That check can be turned of in BIOS.

I have a fan-less Yesiko power-supply and it also makes some strange hiss noise when the computer is _not_ turned on. Lucky for me my machine is on 24/7 and it's totaly silent when running.

Did your machine boot correctly at all? If so, what temps did you get in BIOS? If there was no contact between the sink and the CPU I guess it would overheat within minutes. I just installed the XP-120, no aditional stuff.

Could anyone using a S478 cooler kindly double-check if it makes proper contact with the cpu and not only the thermal paste?

S478 heatsinks will work perfect on this board. I've used Z7000, XP90 and stock Intel.

The P-M CPU+socket is about .075" shorter than an S478+P4 CPU so you won't necessarily have as much contact force on the top of the CPU, but Intel's specs call for something like a "maximum of 15/lbft" for Pentium M and something like "75 +/- 15lbft" for P4 with it's integrated heatspreader. In other words, they don't want you putting nearly as much pressure on the delicate, exposed core of the P-M, compared to the P4, who's core is safely covered by the integrated heatspreader.

If you really feel the need to shim, all you need to do is get the appropriate thickness of shim stock and cut it into four little wafers that will fit between the heatsink clips and the underside of the retention slots, as Mats already described

Oh, and the stock AOpen heatsink, at 5V, cools quite well and is pretty darn quiet.

I also got some strange beeps on boot, but it turned out to be warning message becase there was no cpu-fan attached. That check can be turned of in BIOS.

Oki, I have to use this damn old excuse that it was late at night, about 3:30 am. I probably didn't think too clearly, but here it goes. I got kinda hung up in the high-frequent hiss and judging from the manual the beeps meant memory failure. Oh well, had a suspicion that the beeps could indicate a missing cpu-fan.

palled wrote:

I have a fan-less Yesiko power-supply and it also makes some strange hiss noise when the computer is _not_ turned on. Lucky for me my machine is on 24/7 and it's totaly silent when running.

I can probably live with that, my computer is also on 24/7 and if I really have to turn it off I'll probably just reach for the switch on the back. I just found the noise really strange, never had this issue with any MB before. It's a relief that it wasn't something very uncommon though It's been a plain ride with Asus boards.

palled wrote:

Did your machine boot correctly at all? If so, what temps did you get in BIOS? If there was no contact between the sink and the CPU I guess it would overheat within minutes. I just installed the XP-120, no aditional stuff.

Yes, the computer booted correctly, but it's my mistake for not checking properly in the BIOS though. I actually considered this, but in my frustration I got hung up in that damn hiss and "memory failure" beeps. The Zalman 6500 heatsink wasn't even warm to the touch.

Ralf Hutter wrote:

S478 heatsinks will work perfect on this board. I've used Z7000, XP90 and stock Intel....If you really feel the need to shim, all you need to do is get the appropriate thickness of shim stock and cut it into four little wafers that will fit between the heatsink clips and the underside of the retention slots, as Mats already described

Just read about someone having problems with the XP120 making contact in the Aopen forums, but since people here have both tried the XP90/X120 with apparently no problems I'll take your word for this Judging from pictures both the XP90/XP120 share a _very_ similar spring attachment and contact surface?

I should have paid more attention. Right, Mats actually wrote about placing the shim between the clip and heatsink. Doh, and I thought I needed to place it between the processor and contact surface...

If you really feel the need to shim, all you need to do is get the appropriate thickness of shim stock and cut it into four little wafers that will fit between the heatsink clips and the underside of the retention slots, as Mats already described

Well actually I meant a solution specific for the Zalman 7000 (although it might work for other HSF too). Put one shim in the grove here in the middle of the heatsink under the clip. Another way is to bend the clip slightly.

Very Cool!! With the case open in my 27C basement, and the AOpen OEM CPU fan set to OFF, it is idleing in WinXP at ~36C after 5 minutes of slow rising. Didn't have time to find equilibrium. Speedstep has the CPU running at 600 Mhz in this mode. With the 80MM fan at 800 RPM, the CPU drops to 28C (ambient!).

I'm just setting up my AOPEN system and wondering what utility others are using to monitor temperatures. Thanks.

Very Cool!! With the case open in my 27C basement, and the AOpen OEM CPU fan set to OFF, it is idleing in WinXP at ~36C after 5 minutes of slow rising. Didn't have time to find equilibrium. Speedstep has the CPU running at 600 Mhz in this mode. With the 80MM fan at 800 RPM, the CPU drops to 28C (ambient!).

I'm just setting up my AOPEN system and wondering what utility others are using to monitor temperatures. Thanks.

Sorry to bother with this. I see now that it's part of the Series Tool.

Very Cool!! With the case open in my 27C basement, and the AOpen OEM CPU fan set to OFF, it is idleing in WinXP at ~36C after 5 minutes of slow rising. Didn't have time to find equilibrium. Speedstep has the CPU running at 600 Mhz in this mode. With the 80MM fan at 800 RPM, the CPU drops to 28C (ambient!).

I'm just setting up my AOPEN system and wondering what utility others are using to monitor temperatures. Thanks.

Sorry to bother with this. I see now that it's part of the Series Tool.

I'm using Motherboard Monitor. You may have better luck than me, but I found the Series Tool rather unstable, plus it doesn't allow you to show your temps from within the Systray.

Very Cool!! With the case open in my 27C basement, and the AOpen OEM CPU fan set to OFF, it is idleing in WinXP at ~36C after 5 minutes of slow rising. Didn't have time to find equilibrium. Speedstep has the CPU running at 600 Mhz in this mode. With the 80MM fan at 800 RPM, the CPU drops to 28C (ambient!).

I'm just setting up my AOPEN system and wondering what utility others are using to monitor temperatures. Thanks.

Sorry to bother with this. I see now that it's part of the Series Tool.

I'm using Motherboard Monitor. You may have better luck than me, but I found the Series Tool rather unstable, plus it doesn't allow you to show your temps from within the Systray.

Thanks, Ralf. I just assumed that given that this is a relatively new board that MBM wouldn't work.

Very Cool!! With the case open in my 27C basement, and the AOpen OEM CPU fan set to OFF, it is idleing in WinXP at ~36C after 5 minutes of slow rising. Didn't have time to find equilibrium. Speedstep has the CPU running at 600 Mhz in this mode. With the 80MM fan at 800 RPM, the CPU drops to 28C (ambient!).

I'm just setting up my AOPEN system and wondering what utility others are using to monitor temperatures. Thanks.

Sorry to bother with this. I see now that it's part of the Series Tool.

I'm using Motherboard Monitor. You may have better luck than me, but I found the Series Tool rather unstable, plus it doesn't allow you to show your temps from within the Systray.

Thanks, Ralf. I just assumed that given that this is a relatively new board that MBM wouldn't work.

Nope, the 855 chipset is actually two years old and is entirely supported by MBM.

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